Orcon said the same thing, hinting that it will be Apple’s chosen one and all I can say is: no decision has been made because Apple’s not looking at coming to NZ any time soon.

Remember iTunes? It was years before NZ got on the radar, let alone actually got a store… it’s the same thing with the iPhone. Would Vodafone NZ like the iPhone? Sure would. Does that mean we’ll get it? No it doesn’t. Just the same as the other network operators (and let’s not forget about NZ Communications in all this). Apple simply isn’t approaching NZ telcos about this at this stage.

Cheers

Paul Brislen
Vodafone External Communications Manager

What a great marketing tool free Wi Fi was for cafes across Vancouver. It was a genius stroke and one that cafe’s here just haven’t picked up on. Waves cafe at midnight Sunday into the small hrs Monday morning was never without a dozen or so people with their laptops sucking coffee, eating bagels etc etc. How else would that Cafe been able to be open at that time without free wi-fi. I mean I was able to listen to the Super 12 from there in the wee small hrs via web broadcast of radio sport, and of course the coffee helped.

What was nice about that situation was that the ISP’s like Vodafone and Telecom were taken out of the equation, and settings and coffee were the more important factors. I can’t believe it isn’t here, considering our burgeoning cafe culture, position in the world and huge tourist population (whom are increasingly traveling with laptops).

With regard to the iPhone, up until yesterday I was sure it was Telecom exclusive to have the thing (given the AT&T agreements that Apple insisted on). However the latest and strongest rumors are that it will be unlocked and plan free in Australia by middle of the year. This throws it wide open again in NZ.

Also some of the latest and strongest synthesis of rumors about the upcoming iPhone 2 almost meet my concerns and usual Apple Version 1 bugs. This from Apple 2.0 blog at Fortune Magazine.

32GB – that’s as much as my old Graphite iMac upstairs.
Body: Less “plasticky,” 2.5mm thinner (current dimensions are 115 x 61 x 11.6mm). SEXY!!!
Accelerometer: Re-tuned. – Awesome!
Bandwidth: Up to 7.2 Mbps from Infineon (IFX) S-GOLD3H chipset, on the road to 4G already! Faster than anything blackberry can imagine to do.
Camera: Higher res (3 megapixel) – nice but don’t use phone cameras.
Video: Video recording capability, upload directly to YouTube. Handy if in business or having fun.
Bluetooth: Stereo headphones – I use sony and Grado, the apple ones are tin.
GPS: To replace triangulation – sexy sexy sexy.
Available unlocked: In Australia, starting last week of June.

And like all tech geeks this still doesn’t meet my needs, and I may hang out even further until xmas for the rumored 80+Gb hard drives, then it will be a walking serious hard drive, wi fi, email, business RIM butt kicking machine. Still there are about 3000 of the babies in NZ at the moment.

DPF … you cost Voda a sale with your post I was about to get a vodem but having read your post I’m holding off to get the newer tech that promises faster speeds.

Paul and others … re free WiFi … you may have noticed that Telecom has a number of WiFi hot-spots, which were free for Xtra broadband customers until the 31st of March. But now they’re charging $9.95 per hour to use them. WTF. Work that out per Mb for typical usage and and it’s way more expensive than even cellular data charges. Hence me aiming to buy a vodem.

I used to see the free WiFi as the one big hook keeping me using Xtra. Now that’s gone I’m ISP shopping.

And Paul … completely agree re the iPhone. It’s pure geek porn. I do suspect Telecom will be the one who brings it to NZ, because I gather that Voda and Apple have agreed to disagree about revenue sharing, and because Telecom needs to make a splash with the launch of their new 3G W-CDMA network.

cheers for the heads up – we could get a list going – nothing in Dunedin (well ‘open’ ones anyway)

My beef with the web in NZ is the complete lack of free wi-fi anywhere.

Broadband in Vancouver was fast but also more expensive, but it the pain was eased by buying a coffee every now and then for free wi-fi.

(PS had to walk past the Lotus, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley and Porche dealerships to get to my fav coffee/wi fi hang out in Vancouver – inspiring and depressing).

I’d rather be in something that doesn’t break down.

Which is probably Lotus, but is unfortunately not Vodafone.

Actually all hints are pointing to Telecom pulling out the stops to have the iPhone as one of it’s flagship toys for it’s new 3G (in selected cities near you soon) network, and that hurts, “back in the Corolla family”.

Because if it’s a Vodafone Lotus, there will be spots in Auckland where it will mysteriously break down (lose the tower) and Vodafone (Lotus) will deny all knowledge of it until you point out it happens at busy intersections (Greenlane and the Harbour Bridge)?

Because it is singularly the most important development in mobile computing ever. Version 1 is slow and on the wrong platform, 3G will be a huge improvement.

In less than one year they have become the second largest smart phone in the world, and this isn’t a cellular phone company.

Don’t worry about the Microspft exchange issue
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/06/apple-will-build-microsoft-exchange-into-every-iphone/

If you are a gamer
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/04/05/quake-iii-on-the-ipod-touch/

Satisfaction levels
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/04/01/iphone-scores-79-in-customer-satisfaction-survey-rim-trails-at-54/

But then, why the hell would you want to drive a corolla if for the same price you could get a Lotus Elise.

I played with one at the Apple NY store and the keyboard ‘issue’ wasn’t a problem, my fat fingers had no issues with the keyboard. The sound in the headphones was stunning and movies in wide screen were stunning.

But again back to the wi-fi issue and 3G. As reported surfing the web is one of the biggest advantages of the iPhone, and being able to surf while on the go is even better. What if you needed to get a bottle of wine before hitting a dinner and you didn’t know where the next bottle store was, or for google maps, or the weather, TV news, youTube, iTunes and iTunes store etc etc.

I was an iphone skeptic till I held on in my hands and after people had been playing with it all day at Apple NY, there were no smudges over the screen and it was stunning.

Price will come down with the next version, it always does with Apple, it will have a bigger hard drive, it will be 3G, and it does rock.

If you have a mate in the USA, you can import an iPhone for around $600 NZ – just find a smart person to help you unlock for NZ use.

I agree that if you are locked into a Microsoft Exchange environment, there probably isn’t much use in an iPhone for you compared to Blackberry, which I also concede are very nice.

The traffic limit is far lower on mobile than on fixed line because it’s far more expensive to provide mobile broadband compared with fixed line… besides for most users, 3GB (or 6GB as it is for an extra $10 bundle insurance) is still a pretty good limit. You’re not going to game online for hours at a time or download (ahem) Linux distros, but you can certainly use it as a business tool.

Cheers

Paul
Vodafone External Communications Manager

There wasn’t one coffee shop in Vancouver where I couldn’t hold a meeting without free wi-fi, and boy it was handy. I had to sell my old vodafone card while over there as my new MacBook Pro has a different sized PCMCIA slot – argh!!!

And while there is someone here from Vodafone – please please please don’t let telecom get the iPhone here. I haven’t paid a single cent to Telecom in years now and I really don’t want to start again, but with iPhones the #2 smart phone and 3G version on the horizon, it will be a hit here. But again back to the lack of wi-fi, it won’t have the same fun and utility factor.

Have fun with the card David, speeds sound like fun, but boy would I blow that 3G limit pretty quick, some of my graphic layouts are that size each time.

Cheers

Paul Brislen
Vodafone External Communications Manager